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24 January, 2023

Flight Centre reveals the top international business travel destination

Research from Flight Centre Corporate showed New Zealand’s North Island city was a clear favourite for business travellers as restrictions were wound back and flight capacity increased.

Singapore (second) and London (third) rounded out the top three most travelled destinations for business.

Brisbane-based global managing director for Flight Centre Travel Group’s flagship SME division Corporate Traveller, Tom Walley, said the relationship between Australia and New Zealand was critical for both trade and business growth – something that would help both country’s economies.

“Australia’s bilateral trade and economic relationship with New Zealand is one of the broadest and most diverse in the world – it’s vitally important to have a busy airbridge across the Tasman for businesses large and small to thrive on both sides,” Walley said.

Tom Walley – Brisbane-based global GM

“Investment between New Zealand and Australia was almost NZ$197 billion as at December 2019 – with Australia being the biggest services trade partner for the Kiwis. New Zealand’s major goods exports to Australia (December 2020) were dairy, beverages, and meal preparations.

“Optics are increasingly returning to normal in the world of business travel and the fact Auckland remained the clear number one international destination for Australian corporates in 2022 – as it was back in 2019 – is more evidence of that sense of normality.

“The one major change we saw from 2019 versus 2022 was London jumping into the top three international destinations last year, up from fourth spot, as business travellers were unafraid to venture to Europe’s economic epicentre for meetings, events, business growth, and trade.”

The data from Flight Centre Corporate also revealed that mining/oil/gas soared to the top of the charts as the top industry flown in 2022 – unseating Government/NFP from the number one spot in 2019 – with that sector now in second. Construction remained unmoved in third place.

Closer to home, domestic business travel was once again dominated by the Golden Triangle, with Sydney first, Melbourne second, and Brisbane third – unchanged for 2022 versus 2019.

“The Golden Triangle continues to be the beating heart of corporate travel within Australia and the epicentre of business activity – that’s unlikely to change anytime soon,” Walley said.

“With the vast majority of restrictions now ended globally – with COVID testing requirements in and out of China for some countries as the one major exception to this – corporate travellers can now look forward to a far smoother 2023, a 2023 where skills shortages will become more of a focus, and where businesses big and small can capitalise if they take advantage of the return to travel.”

Featured Image: iStock/PeopleImages

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